Channeling the Soviets and a little bit of Jeb Bush, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) instructed members of her party to applaud Joe Biden’s “extraordinary leadership” at a bizarre White House event on Tuesday that celebrated a drop in consumer prices that is not actually happening.
“That’s an applause line,” Pelosi said on the White House lawn.
Pelosi begs for applause
The purpose of the event was to commemorate the inaptly named Inflation Reduction Act, which is actually a climate change law that does nothing to address inflation in the near future.
A report Tuesday showing that consumer prices rose again in August did not stop Democrats from bragging about the utopia Biden is supposedly building, with Pelosi lavishing praise on Biden for “driving down costs for kitchen table items for America’s working families.”
Adding to the weird, awkwardly choreographed authoritarian optics of the whole spectacle, Pelosi reminded the audience to applaud as she thanked Biden for delivering “glorious” prosperity.
“Mr. President, thank you for unifying and inspiring a vision of a stronger, fairer, safer future for all our children. Your extraordinary leadership has made this glorious day possible,” Pelosi said.
Tuesday’s economic report showed increases in the cost of food, housing, and healthcare, with an overall 8.3 percent spike in inflation year-to-year and a .1 percent increase since last month, despite a fall in gas prices.
Biden’s shocking audacity
Biden also shocked the nation Tuesday with his rhetorical audacity as he took the podium to brag about the economy, even as the stock market had its worst tumble since June 2020 on the news that prices are up again.
Undeterred by reality, Biden called the Inflation Reduction Act “the single most important legislation passed in the Congress to combat inflation and one of the most significant laws in our nation’s history.”
The law is certainly significant, just not in the way its title would suggest. Republicans have been happy to note that it massively expands the IRS and will hasten an end to fossil fuels that Democrats have long sought.
What any of that has to do with bringing costs down for average people is anyone’s guess.
Even ordinarily friendly media pushed back on Biden’s boasts, with the New York Times saying the economic reality “dampened” his rhetoric.